Dave Brailsford: England’s World Cup has been ‘emotionally hijacked’

Dave Brailsford, the man who has led the British cycling team’s charge to the top of the world, believes the England football team have been ‘emotionally hijacked’ at the World Cup finals.

Hijacked: Matthew Upson (left) and Michael Dawson in England training

‘You have to forget about the result. Forget about England, forget about the match you’re playing, just get out there and create an environment where you know what the processes are,’ said the 46-year-old.

‘You get emotionally hijacked and it doesn’t matter if you’re Pele, Mark Cavendish or Bradley Wiggins, or whoever, once you get emotionally hijacked, you’re finished.’

British Cycling performance director Brailsford, who led the team to eight gold medals at the Beijing Olympics, has backed Fabio Capello ’s men to recover from their poor displays, which sees them on the brink of elimination, so long as the players focus on the performance, not the result, in Port Elizabeth today.

‘We try to manage emotional thinking. The worst-case scenario is halfway through a match you start thinking: “Jeez, what happens if we lose? What happens if we draw? We’re going to get slated for this”,’ he added.

Brailsford insists the problem with the national team is purely a mental one and insisted: ‘They might be paid a lot of money but they’re humanbeings, they’re vulnerable.’

‘They could do with some real insight into how the mind works under pressure situations and coping scenarios.

‘They need a freedom to express themselves and when they do, they are brilliant.’